Design Research for Responsive Web
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This project was to do design research on food trucks and food truck owners. We wanted to explore four questions:
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Group Members
Anant Agrawal Pavi Bhatter Ziqi Dong Pooja Casula |
The first step was to talk to potential stakeholders about food trucks. We conducted 6 interviews.
Interview Questions
1. General experience with food trucks
2. Information that people seek from food trucks
3. Experiences in person at food trucks either on or off CMU campus
4. Information people seek on the web about food trucks
- How much of your business profit is coming from students?
- Do you like owning a food truck on campus?
- Do you, as owners, do anything special to attract customers?
- Have you ever had a particularly bad experience with a food truck once or like a really good experience once? If so, can you talk a little about that?
- Why food trucks specifically?
2. Information that people seek from food trucks
- What do you want to share with students online?
- What questions, if any, do students have when they visit their food truck?
- How do you find these food trucks usually?
- If you had to go to a food truck, how do you think you would find information about it?
3. Experiences in person at food trucks either on or off CMU campus
- How is your experience with students here versus at locations off-campus?
- Any favorite spots? Or favorite food trucks you particularly like?
4. Information people seek on the web about food trucks
- Is there anything you would like to tell students about the food or your operation hours online?
- How would you evaluate whether you want to eat here or not?
User insights
We conducted interviews with food truck owners, students who are regular food truck customers and students who had never been to a food truck. Our live-site interviews allowed us to get a real-life understanding of keen observations about the food truck space in Pittsburgh and on-campus. This led us to deduce the problems within this industry space. Focusing on the interactions between the stakeholders, specifically employees and owners and food truck customers, we observed that on a warm, sunny day at prime lunchtime at noon, there was a severe lack of customers at the food trucks on Margaret Morrison Street. The food trucks looked clean, but old in their manner. These trucks have been serving Carnegie Mellon University for many years. Food truck employees were trying to call students walking by, asking them if they wanted anything.
During our interviews with solely single stakeholders, primarily focusing on customers of the food trucks (or students on-campus), they seemed emotionless about the food trucks. Some students ate at these food trucks, but were not regular customers, while some had never even visited that area of campus.
We found a few insights from these interviews:
Food truck owner insights
Regular food truck customers
Students who have never been to a food truck
During our interviews with solely single stakeholders, primarily focusing on customers of the food trucks (or students on-campus), they seemed emotionless about the food trucks. Some students ate at these food trucks, but were not regular customers, while some had never even visited that area of campus.
We found a few insights from these interviews:
Food truck owner insights
- His food truck cannot move (mobilize), and once it gets too cold there are little customers from December to February
- He would like if he can mobilize food truck
- Have an online, mobile chat potentially so he can advertise updates on his food truck
Regular food truck customers
- Students didn’t really look online for information about food trucks
- Unless they knew about it earlier, then they would follow it on Instagram or Facebook
- Physical attributes of food truck seem to be very important to students
- How professional and clean it looks
- “Cleanliness. I guess if it looks professional...and well done then I know I’ll be okay eating there”
- How professional and clean it looks
- Students think of food trucks offering a “unique” experience
- Adds to the appeal of eating there
- Price of food truck also adds to appeal of eating there
Students who have never been to a food truck
- Students wouldn’t be against going to a food truck, just never really found a reason to.
- Location of food trucks seemed to be the biggest reason for why they never went to the ones located on Margaret Morrison
- Person 3: “Umm well… so basically for lunch. It would be for lunch. Uh and I would have classes and I would just want to pick something up from the UC and then go back to class and so the food trucks that I know of are by Maggie Mo., not near where my classes are...uh”
- Cleanliness and physical look of food truck impacted perception
- Person 1: "I think hygiene is also a big thing. Like if I look at a food truck and just see like…(Person 2 nodding along: “Oh yeah thats true “) maybe not the cleanest food in the world then I don’t think I would go there. And some food trucks give off that they are doing their best to make sure that they maintain a clean kitchen. And other ones, not as much. So thats probably a big factor too.”
Affinity Diagram
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After conducting the interviews the next step was to create an affinity diagram in order to understand the goals and needs of all the stakeholders.
For customers, they want to get the food truck information about open hours, menu, specials and location. They choose food truck mainly because of the good price and convenience. Typically, they prefer food trucks that are near dorms or classrooms. For owners, their main goal is to attract more customers, so they want to know the best parking locations and the food types that customers like. |
Pain Points and Opportunities
Based on our interviews with food truck customers, non-customers and food-truck owners, are group pinpointed certain problems within the business industry here on-campus, as well as keen observations. At the food trucks, business was slow during prime lunch-time hours at noon on a sunny, warm school day. Although campus was lively, where the food trucks sit near Margaret Morrison Apartments and Donner, was particularly less bustling and low-traffic. From the owners perspective, they acknowledge that business is a bit slower, students seem to forget that they still operate normal business hours during the winter and that competition, in the form of unlicensed vendors distributing food from the back of their car parked at high-traffic areas on campus, are stealing their customers. Carnegie Mellon University forces them to go through strict license checks and currently has restricted them to be non-mobilizing food trucks.
From the perspective of passing by students on-campus and current customers of the food trucks, the location of these trucks on campus seemed to be the most prominent issue for them. No lecture halls or classrooms are in the area that these food trucks are parked. They are in the back of campus where upperclassmen rarely visit, which are the target customers really since first-year students are on a meal plan. The food trucks need to be conveniently near class areas, or essentially in high-traffic areas on campus.
From the perspective of passing by students on-campus and current customers of the food trucks, the location of these trucks on campus seemed to be the most prominent issue for them. No lecture halls or classrooms are in the area that these food trucks are parked. They are in the back of campus where upperclassmen rarely visit, which are the target customers really since first-year students are on a meal plan. The food trucks need to be conveniently near class areas, or essentially in high-traffic areas on campus.
Personas
Identifying the pain points and opportunities enabled us to create personas of the potential stakeholders.
Zachary Wilson“I wouldn’t mind going to the food trucks, but it’s just too far away and I’m not sure its worth it”
Age: 20
Occupation: Student Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Zachary is a student at CMU who doesn’t eat at food trucks. He’s not against food trucks, but just doesn’t think believe that they gluten-free options or are very careful about preparing gluten-free food. He also feels like it would take too much time to go all the way to the food trucks, located across campus, in order to quickly pick up food before his next class. Needs:
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Felicia Peters
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“I love food trucks, but sometimes it’s a real pain to find them”
Felicia Peters is a student at Carnegie Mellon who enjoys going to food trucks. She likes the affordability of food trucks and the variety of cuisines and dishes they offer their customers. She finds out all her information about food trucks either through word of mouth or by physically seeing them. She feels like she is missing out on a lot of good food trucks around Pittsburgh and wants to be able to find them on her own.
Age: 21 Occupation: Student Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Needs:
Deal Killers:
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Jim Penstein
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“Stop double-standards, government. Keep coming, dear students.”
Jim Penstein owns and manages a food truck on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus. He has been operating the truck for the past 20 years. Business has declined in recent years and he attributes this to the growing amount of “out of car” vendors that he feels are stealing business from the food trucks. He feels like he needs to be ahead of the curve and is considering changing his strategy to gain more business.
Age: 52 Occupation: Food Truck Owner Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Needs:
Deal Killers:
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